Page 13 of The Girl He Wanted

"Agent Marriott, this is Hubert Jenkins. I have the information you requested."

"Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Can you please tell me who has done maintenance on the water tower recently?"

"The most recent maintenance was done six months ago by a man named Jack Reynolds. But I can’t imagine that he could have been involved in anything like this. He's been with the department for over two years now and has a spotless record."

"Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. That's very helpful," Christopher said. "We may need to speak with Mr. Reynolds. Can you give me his contact details?"

"Sure, let me get that for you," Jenkins said, and there was a rustling sound before he read out a phone number and an address.

"Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. We'll be in touch," Christopher said and then hung up.

“We have a name," Christopher said, turning to Paige. "Jack Reynolds. Can you cross reference it against the list you have from the climbing club."

"Already on it," Paige assured him, looking down the list. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. She felt a wave of excitement building inside her. "He's here. He's on the list."

"I'll look him up on the FBI system," Christopher said. "You try checking the victims' social media to see if he had any direct connection to Ellie Kane or Bea Milling beyond just the climbing club."

Paige nodded and started to look through Ellie Kane's social media. She wasn't surprised to find that Ellie and Jack were friends, at least online. There was even a picture of the two of them at the foot of a climbing wall together.

It meant that Paige got her first look at Jack Reynolds. He was a good-looking man, tall and lean, with spiky, blond hair and a strong jawline. In the photo, he was smiling, and Ellie had her arm around his shoulder. Paige felt a pang of sadness for Ellie. Was it possible that she'd been that close to someone who might have killed her? Maybe the reason that he’d killed her was somewhere in the relationship between the two of them.

Paige continued to scroll through Ellie's social media, then Bea's, looking for any other connections between Jack and the victims. She didn't find anything else, but the picture was enough to make her suspicious. She turned to Christopher, who was still typing away on his computer.

"Christopher, I've found something," Paige said, interrupting his search. "Ellie and Jack were friends. There's even a picture of them together at the climbing gym."

"That's a good find, Paige," Christopher said, looking up from his laptop. "Did you find anything about Bea Milling?"

Paige shook her head. "Not yet, but I’m still looking. Have you found anything on Jack Reynolds on the FBI systems?"

Christopher nodded. "He might have a spotless record with the Department of Public Works, but he definitely doesn't with the police. He's been arrested a couple of times. Once for a fight in a bar, and once for an alleged assault on a girlfriend where the charges were dropped."

"So, a violent man?" Paige said. That hint of violence made her wonder. Was it enough to suggest that he might be their guy? Taken with the fact that he'd done work on the water tower, that he was a member of a climbing club, and that he knew Ellie Kane from that climbing club, it might be.

Christopher seemed to agree. "I think it's time we went to talk to Jack Reynolds."

Paige nodded. This could be the killer they were looking for. If so, they needed to get to him now, before he had a chance to hurt anyone else.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Paige could feel her heart beating faster as she and Christopher drove over to Jack Reynolds's house. The two of them might be about to confront a killer in his home. One who had already murdered two women.

That wasn't the only reason for her nervousness, though. The fact that Christopher was almost silent during the drive over was concerning. He wasn't talking. Specifically, he wasn't talking about the death of his wife.

With it being so fresh, Paige might have expected him to want to talk, either about Jennifer or about the killer who had murdered her. The Exsanguination Killer was still out there somewhere, but the two of them were stuck investigating these murders instead. That had to be having some kind of effect on Christopher, didn't it? Even as an FBI agent, his urge must be to try to catch her. Now, though, it must have been almost impossible to hold back from it.

Paige found herself thinking about her father's murder again. It had been years, but the pain was still there, just beneath the surface. She knew that Christopher was feeling the same thing, and she wished she could offer him some kind of comfort. However, they were both professionals, and this was their job. They had to stay focused and do what needed to be done.

Christopher pulled up outside a small, two-story house on the outskirts of town. Paige looked it over quickly. It was a modest home with a small garden out front. Paige could see a car parked in the driveway, and she wondered if it belonged to Jack Reynolds.

Paige tried to steady her breathing, but she couldn't help feeling nervous. The moments when they were about to confront a suspect were always risky. In this case, they had no concrete evidence against Jack Reynolds, but they had enough to warrant a closer look.

"Ready?" Christopher asked, turning off the engine.

Paige nodded, taking a deep breath as she stepped out of the car. She followed Christopher up the path to the front door, her heart beating faster with each step. She resisted the urge to reach for her gun. There wasn’t any threat yet. Christopher rang the doorbell, and they waited for a few seconds.

After a while, the door opened, and a woman appeared. She was in her mid-thirties, with long, blonde hair and a friendly smile. She was wearing a light blue dress and a cream cardigan.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

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